Headline News

2, November 2022

Yaoundé, Berlin discuss restitution of artifacts ⁰

Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on Monday discussed with visiting German Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Simen Katja Keul about the prospects of returning artifacts that were removed from the Central African country during the colonial era.

“There is a great interest by the German civil society to deal with this past and to work together on it, like for example the restitution of cultural goods,” Keul told reporters after the meeting in the capital, Yaounde. Keul added that the common procedure was being looked at to reinforce cooperation in this regard.

Major museums, auction houses, and private collectors in Germany have faced growing pressure in recent years to repatriate priceless works of art and other antiquities from African nations.

In May, Cameroonian authorities said during a cabinet meeting that they were working with reputed local and international experts and associations to ensure that the art objects abroad are returned “honorably, administratively and safely” to the country.

Source: Xinhuanet

1, November 2022

Biya regime says hundreds of Cameroonian citizens deported from Equatorial Guinea ⁰

Cameroon says Equatorial Guinea has deported several hundred Cameroonians, some of whom say they were fleeing terrorist and rebel attacks at home. The government of Equatorial Guinea says the deportees were economic migrants and is planning to deport 7,000 Cameroonians in all by the end of the year.

Scores of Cameroonians applauded Monday while welcoming back at least 200 of their citizens who were deported. But the well-wishers are not happy with Equatorial Guinea’s actions. Civilians shouted that by deporting Cameroonians, the oil-rich country is being indifferent to people who have rendered services as mechanics, electricians, bricklayers, miners and other types of workers.

Nguenang Rigobert, one of the deported Cameroonians, says he lost his teaching job in Equatorial Guinea. Nguenang says he, like many Cameroonians in Equatorial Guinea, are victims of what he calls the Cameroon government’s lack of interest in the plight of its citizens outside the country. He says Cameroon should have negotiated for Equatorial Guinea to give Cameroonians more time to acquire resident and work permits.

Nguenang said several dozen of the deported Cameroonians fled their country in part because of its ongoing separatist crisis. Others left because of Boko Haram terrorism in the north.

Some deportees said they were tortured and their property looted in Equatorial Guinea. Others said they spent several nights in detention centers and were freed after agreeing to return to Cameroon unconditionally.

Nouhou Bello, the most senior Cameroon government official in Ocean, the administrative unit where Campo is located, says President Paul Biya asked him to receive the deported civilians and make sure they travel to their towns and villages in peace.

Bello says Cameroonians who have arrived in Campo since Friday have confirmed to government officials that they were in the neighboring state illegally. He says some of the deportees told officials their visas had expired while others acknowledged lacking travel documents when they went to Equatorial Guinea.

Bello called on Cameroonians staying in Equatorial Guinea illegally to return home or risk being locked up.

Earlier in October, the government of Equatorial Guinea said it would embark on a mass deportation of people living illegally in its territory.

Officials said insecurity has mounted due to an influx of about 30,000 economic migrants within the past three years. Equatorial Guinea accused job-seeking youths, especially from Cameroon and Nigeria, of harassment, theft and armed banditry.

Essomba Innocent is an economic analyst at the National University of Equatorial Guinea. He says in January 2020, the country signaled that it did not want illegal economic migrants in its territory and laid the foundation stone for construction of a border wall with Cameroon.

Essomba says in June 2020, Equatorial Guinea agreed to pause the construction of the controversial wall after Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Central African Republic agreed to voluntarily repatriate their citizens living in Equatorial Guinea illegally. He says people who are being deported should not ask the government of Equatorial Guinea for compensation for goods they acquired when their stay was illegal.

Equatorial Guinea is a tiny central African nation of around 1.5 million people. The International Monetary Fund reports that the nation took in approximately $45 billion in oil revenues between 2000 and 2013, catapulting it from one of the world’s poorest countries to the one with the highest per capita income on the African continent.

Source: VOA

31, October 2022

Indomitable Lions: Song unveils squad for pre-World Cup friendly against Jamaica ⁰

Coach Rigobert Song announced on Sunday a list of 26 players for a pre-FIFA World Cup friendly against Jamaica.

The list is entirely made up of home-based players, who will camp from November 2-10 and play Jamaica on November 9.

Song wants to include three local players in the final squad for the FIFA World Cup and hopes that the game will help him make the right selection, according to football analyst James Ndiba.

“This will be a farewell game before the Indomitable Lions leave for Qatar, so everyone is surprised and asking why Song is testing local players on the eve of the world’s major football tournament,” Ndiba said.

“But I think it is the right thing to do if he must select the correct home-based players. We already know the performance of most of the Cameroonian players playing professional leagues out of the country,” he added.

Cameroon has been drawn in Group G with Switzerland, Serbia and five-time world champions Brazil. The Indomitable Lions will kick off their group stage against Switzerland on November 24.

Source: Xinhaunet

31, October 2022

Yaoundé: FECAFOOT holds Ballon d’Or ceremony ⁰

FECAFOOT held a spectacular Ballon d’Or ceremony Saturday night to honor local female and male footballers.

The ceremony held in the capital city of Yaounde was attended by nation’s football legends, government officials and diplomats.

“This is an incredible football event for Cameroonian football and will bring local players to the limelight,” said anti Anglophone and controversial Ernest Obama, spokesperson of the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT).

Football legend and the FECAFOOT president Samuel Eto’o said the ceremony marked “a turning point” in Cameroon’s football which is undergoing “a clear revolution” under his leadership.

Souaibou Marou, playing for local side Coton Sport of Garoua, won Cameroonian Ballon d’Or 2022 in the male category, while Monique Ngock, playing for local club Flight FF, won in the female category.

By Xinhuanet with additional editing from Cameroon Concord News

31, October 2022

Injured France midfielder Pogba out of World Cup ⁰

Paul Pogba will miss France’s World Cup defence as he needs more time to recover from knee surgery, his agent announced on Monday.

“Following yesterday and today’s medical review in Torino and Pittsburgh, it is extremely painful to inform Paul Pogba will still need recovery time from his surgery,” said Rafaela Pimenta in a statement.

“For this reason, Paul will not be able to join Juventus’ squad before the World Cup break nor the French National Team in Qatar.”

Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri had already said on Friday that it was “very unlikely” that the 29-year-old midfielder would play for his team before Serie A breaks up for the World Cup.

Italian media reported earlier on Monday that Pogba could be out for around 15 days with a thigh injury.

Pogba hasn’t played for Juve since re-signing for them from Manchester United in the summer, hurting the meniscus in his right knee in July.

He initially elected not to go under the knife in a bid to make the Qatar tournament which kicks off on November 20.

However after returning to training early last month Pogba changed his mind and opted for surgery, which kept him on the sidelines until two weeks ago when he recommenced partial training with Juve.

Missing the World Cup is another blow in what has been a hard year for Pogba, who is also embroiled in an alleged extortion plot involving his own brother.

Mathias Pogba, 32, was charged last month along with four other people, all close to the World Cup winner who filed a complaint with Turin prosecutors in July which said he was being blackmailed for 13 million euros ($12.6 mn).

Paul Pogba told investigators that his blackmailers wanted to discredit him by claiming he asked a marabout (holy man) to cast a spell on Paris Saint-Germain and France star Kylian Mbappe, which Pogba denies.

Source: AFP

31, October 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Soldiers arrest man for dressing his room in Chelsea FC colours ⁰

Cameroon government army soldiers deployed to Ndu in the North West region have arrested a prominent fan of English Premier League Club Chelsea FC on lame and ridiculous reason that he dressed his bed room in blue colours which is similar to the Ambazonia separatist movement.

Tebopost that made public the story on social media did not reveal the name of the Stamford Bridge fan. Information filtered from Ndu that the Francophone soldiers performed a brutal and unprovoked attack against the Chelsea FC fan before he was ferried away to an unknown destination.

A photo released on face book by family members clearly indicates that he is a Chelsea fan and not a member of the Southern Cameroons separatist movement.

Cameroon Concord News correspondent in Ndu said he has seen video footage shared by some elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) showing heavily armed troops placing the young man in a military vehicle.

“For dressing his room with the colours of the football club that he supports in England, he was beaten and kicked like a football by Francophone soldiers” a family member was quoted as saying on a live pidgin news broadcast.

By Sama Ernest

31, October 2022

Chad: Kidnapped Franco-Australian conservationist released by captors ⁰

A French-Australian hostage kidnapped in eastern Chad has been released and is in “good health”, the Chadian Prime Minister announced in a tweet Sunday.

“The kidnapped Franco-Australian hostage… has just been found and taken to safety in good health,” said Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo, congratulating “the defence and security forces for this quick and successful action”.

The individual had been kidnapped on Friday “in the afternoon of 28 October”, Chadian authorities said Saturday, adding they had “mobilised all security and human means to get hold of the kidnappers”.

“The hostage was released in the province of Tibesti (North), in an area bordering Niger and Libya by our defence and security forces,” Ayoub Abdelkerim Abdoulaye, governor of the eastern province of Wadi Fira where the abduction took place, told AFP.

Chadian authorities also reported they worked in Oryx Park on behalf of the Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF), a wildlife conservation NGO.

The park is located in the Ouadi Rime-Ouadi Achim wildlife reserve which extends over 77,950 square kilometres.

The French foreign ministry said Saturday it was “aware of the kidnapping of one of our citizens in Chad” and it was “in contact with their family, and also with the authorities in Chad, in order to secure their speedy release”.

Source: AFP

30, October 2022

Qatar World Cup: How Ngando landed himself a mascot role ⁰

Cameroon’s most prominent football fan has his sights set on travelling to Qatar to cheer on his Indomitable Lions at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

For more than 40 years, Ngando Pickett has supported his team through good times and the bad, attending 16 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournaments and two world cups.

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“I just love football and my country,” said Pickett, who stopped going by his real name Henri Mouyébé when friends nicknamed him after the late American soul singer Wilson Pickett because of his similar dance moves.

Pickett, who played amateur football in the 1970s, told Al Jazeera that he first started supporting the Indomitable Lions in 1982 when he was a student living in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast.

“Cameroon had come to play a university competition in Ivory Coast. We were just 10 Cameroonians in Yamoussoukro, but I mobilised them to go support the youth football team,” he said, adding that he was able to see his country win its first AFCON trophy two years later in Abidjan.

Ngando Pickett - Use only with Pickett story — When Pickett isn’t cheering on his team at games, he earns extra money entertaining at local events with Cameroun O Mulema, a dance group he founded. [Courtesy of Ngando Pickett]

Years later, Pickett caught the eyes of Cameroonian officials attending the 1998 AFCON in Burkina Faso because he had covered his body and clothes with paint that matched the green, red and yellow of the country’s flag.

“I was the topic of discussion on the sidelines of the AFCON because nearly every media [outlet] that came to cover the competition took images of me, including most French outlets,” he said.

Joseph Owona, Cameroon’s minister of sports at the time, was so impressed with Pickett that he asked him to take on an important role for the club.

“He said he had met a wonderful Indomitable Lions supporter. He decided to make me the mascot of the team,” Pickett said, adding that Owona helped him go to the World Cup in France that year.

“I really enjoyed a cultural night we had around Notre-Dame Cathedral with seven other Cameroon fans,” he said. “We were in a mini-dance competition with some other nations’ fans and we beat them with our displays. We were given a big carton of champagne. From there, wherever we went, they knew the Cameroonians had come with their exciting dance moves.”

Dancing on the side

When Pickett isn’t cheering on his team at games, the father-of-two earns extra money entertaining at local events with Cameroun O Mulema, a dance group he founded in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala.

“We perform at parties, marriages and official events, especially in Douala,” he said. “We travel to other parts of the country when invited. People know me, so I don’t find it difficult.”

He said the money he earns from performing goes to pay for his children’s education.

“I have to do this in periods when we don’t have football competitions,” Pickett said. “It is not easy, but I have been doing it for years now.”

Word Cup hopes

But football is Pickett’s true love, and he is anxiously waiting to hear from the Cameroonian Football Federation (Fecafoot) to see if he can attend the World Cup in Qatar.

“Fecafoot is very aware of our plan to go to Qatar. They have told us they are working on our travel, lodging and other things. I am very hopeful about it.”

Pickett is also hoping the fan group he founded, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon Supporters Club, will also be able to make the journey to Qatar.

“There are 20 of us who will be taken care of by the Cameroon Football Federation for the World Cup,” Pickett said. “We already started daily practice about a month ago. We are sure of representing Cameroonian fans massively in Qatar.”

High expectations

Pickett has high hopes for his team in this year’s World Cup.

Cameroon is in Group G and will start their campaign against Switzerland on November 24 before meeting Serbia four days later and wrapping up the group stage against five-time champions Brazil on December 2.

Pickett gave a thumbs-up to the job that Samuel Eto’o, president of Fecafoot, is doing and predicted his team will reach at least the knockout stage of the World Cup.

“I believe we’ll succeed in reaching at least the round of 16 because Eto’o is doing everything possible to get the right players,” he said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

30, October 2022

Congo-Kinshasa expels Rwandan ambassador as M23 rebels gain ground ⁰

The authorities in Kinshasa on Saturday announced they were expelling the Rwandan ambassador as M23 rebels they accuse Kigali of supporting made fresh gains in the east of the troubled country.

The announcement, made by government spokesman Patrick Muyaya, came after a government meeting to assess the security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The latest advance by rebel fighters prompted the UN peacekeeping mission there to increase its “troop alert level” and boost support for the army.

Muyaya said that in recent days, “a massive arrival of elements of the Rwandan element to support the M232 terrorists” against DRCongo’s troops had been observed.

“This criminal and terrorist adventure” had forced thousands of people to flee their homes, he added.

Given Rwanda’s continued support for the rebels, the defence council, presided over by President Felix Tshisekedi, had decided to ask the government to give Rwandan ambassador Vincent Karega 48 hours to leave the country.

Rebel advances

M23 rebel fighters have seized control of Kiwanju and Rutshuru-centre along the strategic RN2 highway in the eastern province of North Kivu, local officials and witnesses told AFP by telephone earlier Saturday.

Rebels had also been seen at Rugari, just 30 kilometres (20 miles) down the RN2 from provincial capital Goma, which it links with the north and Uganda.

Four peacekeepers were wounded by mortar fire and shooting at Kiwanja, the mission announced.

“Kiwanja and Rutshuru-centre are in M23 hands,” said civil society representative Jacques Niyonzima.

“The rebels have held two meetings and told local people to go about their work and those displaced to return to their villages, saying security was now guaranteed,” he said.

At Kiwanja, “in our area we recorded three deaths, a man, a woman and her child, killed by shells that landed on houses”, said local resident Eric Muhindo.

A general hospital official in Rutshuru added: “There were several wounded in Kiwanja after a small amount of resistance”.

“Calm has returned. People are moving about and shops are opening,” the official said, asking not to be named.

Hostile acts

The UN’s MONUSCO mission condemned “the hostile acts of M23”, the rebel group, and called for an immediate halt to the fighting.

The mission said on Twitter it was providing “air support, intelligence and equipment” as well as medical assistance.

The peacekeepers said they were “mobilised in support” of DRC’s army after residents reported at least 10 people dead since Sunday and dozens more injured near RN2.

MONUSCO said it had set up an “operations coordination centre” with the army and was carrying out reconnaissance and surveillance flights, but did not provide further details about the alert level.

M23, a mostly Congolese Tutsi group, resumed fighting in late 2021 after lying dormant for years, accusing the government of having failed to honour an agreement over the demobilisation of its fighters.

It has since captured swathes of territory in North Kivu, including the key town of Bunagana on the Ugandan border in June.

The front line between Congolese troops and M23 rebels had been calm in recent weeks until last week, when clashes erupted again.

Last Sunday, M23 fighters captured the village of Ntamugenga in the Rutshuru area. It lies four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the RN2 where the clashes spread on Thursday.

Tension with Rwanda

The UN humanitarian affairs office in the DRC said this week around 34,500 people had fled the Rutshuru region.

The group’s resurgence has destabilised regional relations in central Africa, with the DRC accusing its smaller neighbour Rwanda of backing the militia.

Rwanda denies the charges and counters that DRC works with a notorious Hutu rebel movement involved in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis, the Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which Kinshasa also denies.

A report by independent UN experts seen by AFP in August found that Kigali had provided direct support to the M23.

And this week a US representative to the United Nations spoke of Rwandan defence forces providing assistance to the M23.

M23 first leapt to prominence in 2012 when it briefly captured Goma before a joint Congolese-UN offensive drove it out.

The militia is one of scores of armed groups that roam eastern DRC, many of them a legacy of two regional wars that flared late last century.

Relations between Kigali and Kinshasa appeared to have improved when Tshisekedi took over as president in DR Congo in 2019 and held several meetings with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

But the revival of M23 put an end to that rapprochement.

Source: AFP

29, October 2022

Biden denounces ‘despicable’ attack on US Speaker Pelosi’s husband ⁰

An intruder attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer, fracturing his skull in the early hours after breaking into the couple’s California house in search of the speaker, according to officials.

Addressing a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Biden said political violence had “no place” in the United States, adding “Enough is enough is enough.”

Biden also referenced media reports that the assailant was chanting “Where is Nancy,” the same chant used during the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

“I am not making this up,” Biden said. “This is reported.”

Paul Pelosi was “attacked at home by an assailant who acted with force, and threatened his life while demanding to see the speaker,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said earlier Friday.

Paul Pelosi, 82 — who underwent surgery and is recovering in hospital — was at home alone, as his wife was working in Washington.

With less than two weeks to go before the crucial US midterm elections, members of both parties have sounded the alarm about the potential for political violence.

Source: AFP